My recent Grace favorites...

Lately, Grace has just become little Miss Personality. Well, she has ALWAYS had a fun personality, but lately, she is able to express it more since she is talking more and more.  Along with a more defiant attitude (oh, man...we are closer to 2 than 1) she is gaining a funny sense of humor.

She loves to sing and dance. Anything with music is her absolute FAVORITE!  

Her favorite song at the moment is 'ABC's" (especially THIS one).

 But, according to Grace, they are the ABees. 

The other day I caught her singing the ABC's and at the very end she sings the 'next time won't you sing with me" part by saying, "Me-EEEEEEEE" really high and opera-y while shaking her head back and forth.

She totally was mimicking me. To be silly, when we finish the ABC's, I will swoop up the last note and sing it opera style  moving my head back in forth. Well, she was watching. And it was her turn to make ME laugh.

I sing to her every night and nowadays, she will sing with me.  She knows 'I am a Child of God' pretty well, and she will usually sing it with me. It is really hard for me to keep a straight face whenever she is singing the chorus through half closed eyelids and sings every couple words really loud. And when we get to the part, "Teach me all the I must DO" she sings DO sooo loudly with a little country twang. And then she laughs at herself.

I love all her new words.  If I ask her to go get her bathing suit, she says, "baby-soup" and runs to get it.

speaking of bathing suits...here is her bathing "cap"...no, we did not teach her to do that.

She calls Aunt Cara "Re-Rah" and it reminds me of 'Sherah, princess of power' every time she says it! (does anyone else remember that cartoon?)

Coincidentally, she also calls Dora the Explorer "Re-Rah"....hmmm..

Grace loves my homemade granola and will pretty much down 3 bowls every morning if I let her.

When daddy asks who should say our family prayers, Grace will ALWAYS say, "mama".

Grace has also started saying prayers. She understands what a prayer is...if we mention it, she will promptly fold her arms and say, "shhhh".  When she prays, we will say a few words, and she will repeat usually one or two words and then look back up at us to hear what comes next. It seriously melts my heart, and usually it makes me tear up. I just know there is nothing/or no one closer to our Heavenly Father than a child, and hearing her pray (even if she is just repeating what we say) is just so sincere, and humbling.

Yesterday, we were at the grocery store and Grace saw a little baby who did not have shoes on. (prob about 7-8 months old)  She looks at the baby, then at me, then at the baby and lifts her foot up and emphatically says, "Baby, SHOE!!".  She did NOT like that the baby was not wearing shoes.  And every time we passed this baby the rest of the time we were in the store, she did the exact same thing.  I guess she thought that if SHE had to wear shoes, then that baby had to too.  

who me? Sassy?

She has some pretty sweet dance moves.  One of my favorites is when she stops suddenly from all the running dancing, freezes her body all bent over and then just bounces for a couple of seconds before the crazy dancing continues.

Her favorite game EVER is the game Daddy created. It consists of putting Grace in her crib...letting her hold on to the side and jump...then Grace proceeds to throw every stuffed animal she has in her crib out and daddy tries to keep up

She can eat her body weight in fruit.  I think about 10 times a day she runs to the refrigerator and says,

 "A-PPLE??  A-PPLE??"

She is a little parrot. She knows so many words, and sometimes I am surprised by how much I can understand, even by just vowel sounds.  Sometimes it is almost easier to understand her sentences when I'm 'not listening' than when I'm actively listening.

She absolutely loves her cousin, Luke. And I mean LOVE. She always asks for him, and she loves to hug him and just lean on him. She makes the cutest face when she says 'Luke'....it is like she can't help but smile and glow when she says his name! It is adorable.

She recently has claimed my body pillow as her own personal amusement park. Thanks to a little help from daddy, Grace will pull it off the bed, throw her body on it, and demand "RIDE". And then, of course, daddy will pull her around the house on it.

 All in all, I guess I'm just in love with this little firecracker!